North Haven Businessman To Appear On ABC's 'Shark Tank'

Sales Professional Dave Greco Pitching His Salespreneur To Panel Of Business Moguls

Dave Greco believes so strongly in his business venture, he's willing to jump into a shark tank to promote it.

But have no fear: This is not a literal shark tank, but the one seen weekly on "Shark Tank."

The North Haven resident will appear on Friday, Jan. 27, on the ABC reality show, which puts budding businessmen and women in front of a panel of five celebrity self-made venture capitalists to pitch their ideas and possibly get funding and partnerships with them.

"What I'm promoting is 'The SalesPreneur,' a sales training company that goes about sales in an entrepreneurial way," Greco, 33, says. "It lays out a very specific order in which to do things. If you follow the plan, you will sell."

Greco, the son of Frank and Janice Greco of New Haven, graduated in 1996 from Wilbur Cross High in New Haven and from Bryant College in Rhode Island in 2000. He is now working on his MBA at Quinnipiac University in Hamden. He lives in North Haven with his wife, Amy, and his kids, Lily, 8, and Noah, 6.

On the show, he will present his ideas to the panel of business moguls that includes Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran, technology innovator Robert Herjavec, fashion and branding expert Daymond John and venture capitalist Kevin O'Leary.

The premise of the show is that up-and-comers tell their ideas to the moguls, who then decide whether to throw their own money into it in exchange for a percentage of the equity. Greco asks for a $90,000 investment in exchange for 40 percent equity in The SalesPreneur. He would use that seed money to initiate an expansion of The SalesPreneur training system from the companies who use his services now to more companies.

On the show, Greco tells the panel "I can sell anything to anyone, and I've always hit my quota. I've been in the top 2 percent of every firm I've ever worked for and I've won every sales performance award there is to win."

The pitches on the show are varied; Greco shares his episode of the show with a guy promoting a company called "I Want to Draw A Cat for You," a man with an idea for cargo hauling using pickup trucks, and a magician who wants to bring family-friendly entertainment to Las Vegas. It also features an update on a previous contestant, who developed a toilet training system for cats.

"I went to the ABC website and filled out an email form. They called me, and before I knew it I was on a plane to L.A. and in a room with the 'sharks'," he said. "Just being in the room with these people is amazing."

But more than talking to the panel, Greco is looking forward to the exposure. The show got 6.2 million viewers last week.

"I want people to hear about my idea and tell themselves 'anybody can do that. I can do that'," he said. "No matter what business anybody is in, we can apply The SalesPreneur. We know how people want to be sold to." He is boosting up the servers on his website — http://www.thesalespreneur.com — and hoping for a serious uptick in page views.

Greco has been in sales since his graduation. He first worked for a software company that later was acquired by a larger company, then he worked at the payroll outsourcing company Auto Data Processing. Then he started The SalesPreneur, which is based in Hamden.

"In sales, most professionals have a list on their desks of people they want to turn from named into clients," he said. "My system is a road map to help them do that."